LETTER: TLS to Mr. Thomas Burke.
letter from goldman on relief efforts
during the spanish civil war
Goldman, Emma. Typed letter signed, “Emma Goldman,” to Thomas Burke, February
1, 1938, London; one leaf, recto only; four holograph corrections; faint spotting; folding creases.
Goldman writes to Thomas Burke, the author of Limehouse Nights and other works of realist fiction set among London’s lower classes, to thank him for his “offer to let us have some of your works for a bazaar,” and informing him that “at present, we are concentrating on an exhibition of drawings of children from Barcelona schools.”
“We” refers to the Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista, the relief group she organized to provide aid to refugees fleeing Spain to escape Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War. Burke was an initial sponsor of the organization, along with George Orwell, Rebecca West, Nancy Cunard, W.H. Auden, and several other high profile British intellectuals. According to Goldman’s letter, the exhibition was set to open on February 17th, 1938, and she urges Burke to “find the time to see the work of the children which in view of the daily danger facing them is truly remarkable.” She also asks for clarification on whether [they] can add Burke’s name to their list of sponsors or not, which she hopes they can.
Goldman traveled to Spain at the outbreak of the Civil War and was whole-heartedly welcomed by the Anarcho-syndicalist organizations Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI); she assumed editorship of the English-language CNT-FAI Information Bulletin, and in her travels back and forth between London and Barcelona she devoted her energies to the liberationist cause.
Though throughout five-plus decades of activism Goldman maintained numerous correspondences, letters by her are scarce on the market, with only a dozen appearing at auction in the last 30 years.
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